atw: Re: Hyphen usage
- From: Ken Randall <kenneth_james_randall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:11:31 -0700 (PDT)
What tends to happen with compound adjectives is that they lose the hyphen
over time if used regularly. For example, in 1950 "today" was spelt "to-day"
in
newspapers, and, I think, in all writing. "To-day" was seen as the correct
version,
at least.
Of the examples given below, "in-flight" can be spelt "inflight".
Compound adjectives consisting of an adjective plus part of a verb - e.g.
ill-advised -
are the exception.
--- On Mon, 15/8/11, Neil Maloney <maloneyn@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Neil Maloney <maloneyn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: atw: Re: Hyphen usage
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Received: Monday, 15 August, 2011, 6:50 PM
"To-Do" and "In-Progress" are compound adjectives, and compound adjectives
'require' a hyphen. (Source: Australian Style Manual.)
However, if hyphens will look funny to your users, it would be better not to
use them. (That's if you're able to get any information about your end users'
preferences, there's often usually very little budget for that.)
A quick search on the web (grammar-monster.com) finds, under "Using Hyphens in
Compound Adjectives": In the UK, your readers will expect you to use hyphens in
compound adjectives. Americans are more lenient. The US ruling is: Use a hyphen
if it eliminates ambiguity or helps your reader, else don't bother. If you're
unsure, use hyphens. You won't be marked down for using hyphens.
Personally, I hyphenate complex and compound words whenever I can – but some
clients have preferences the other way. For example, pre-flight, in-flight,
take-off, multi-crew, multi-engine, pilot-in-command. But, as Terry has quite
rightly said, I'm old-school.
Neil.
On 15/08/2011 6:07 PM, bob mosh wrote:
I have been asked to review the user interface text of a project management
application. I have almost completed the review, except the pending issue of
hyphen usage. I am not sure if a hyphen should be used in the following UI
labels:
· “To-Do List” or “To Do List”
· “In-Progress Tasks” or “In Progress Tasks” (a tab that user needs to
click to view ongoing tasks, as in New Tasks, In-Progress Tasks, Completed
Tasks, Pending Tasks)
I did some research and found that these phrases are used both with and without
the hyphen, which made it all the more confusing.
It would be great if someone could help me to sift through and find the correct
usage.
Regards,
Bob ************************************************** To view the
austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To
unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field (without quotes). To manage your
subscription (e.g., set and unset DIGEST and VACATION modes) go to
www.freelists.org/list/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a
message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************
Other related posts:
